"You are still half asleep," he observed, impatiently, "or you would see at once I have not done anything half so good this long time."
He held it out at arm's length, looked at it admiringly, then laid it by, and went downstairs. I followed, but kept somewhat in the rear. I feared both the keen eyes and the direct questions of Kate. Her first indignant words, as we sat down to dinner, were—
"I am astonished, Cornelius, at your cruelty; the poor child is pale with fasting."
"Indeed, Kate, I had to waken her."
"Nonsense!"
"Yes, it is peculiar," he quietly replied; "I hope it is not a bad symptom."
"A symptom indeed, as if I could believe in it! Why, she has been imposing on you; look at her—guilty little thing!"
Cornelius laid down his knife and fork to give me an astonished look.
"Deceitful girl!" exclaimed Kate, quite sharply; "how dare you do such a thing—to go and impose on Cornelius!—for shame!"
She lectured me on the text with some severity.